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Breck Parks Crew: Marcus Stephens

We tried Keystone closing day but it just wasn’t happening for us and so we bounced over to Breckenridge. We spotted Darren Riethmiller immediately and we kind of trailed him over to the parks crew shack on Freeway where a bunch of the crew was having a lunch break. We got a chance to hang out with everybody and interview Darren and Echelon Snowboards shred Marcus Stephens.

Justin: Alright.. so what’s it like??

Marcus: It’s good… It’s REAL good. (pause)

Justin: Yeah?

Marcus: Yeah..(laughing)

Justin: (laughing) I mean, what’s it like being the only black guy in Summit County?

Luke/Nichole: (laughter)

Marcus: Like I said, it’s GOOD! I mean really, it makes me the best at a LOT of things.

Justin: Yeah?

Marcus: I mean by default I’m the best black snowboarder, I’m the best black skateboarder, I’m the best..

Luke: You’re the best black dancer!!

Marcus: Yeah! I just get to win a lot of things, as long as it’s segregated.

Justin: .. yeah right!! So we usually see you guys raking and grooming and that kind of looks like fun. What are, maybe, some of the not so fun things that you guys have to do?

Marcus: Raking and grooming.

Justin: (laughing)

Luke: (laughing) it looks fun, but it’s not!

Marcus: Yeah, um looks can be deceiving.

Justin: Well what’s up with Bonanza and Trygve’s and stuff? Is it maybe a little less fun keeping stuff prepped over there? It’s not necessarily right next to Peak 8 headquarters.

Marcus: It’s actually a nice break to get away from this park sometimes when things get hectic. It’s kind of like a little vacation in the middle of our day. It’s easy, you know, all the stuff is small. It’s really not too bad.

Justin: ..alright

Marcus: Yeah, and that’s where all the pretty girls are too.

Justin: ha ha

Marcus: the fly honeys..

Justin: We’ve been watching you ripping this winter too, on your off days. Talk a little about the good vibes you get shredding on your own features.

Marcus: You know that’s ALWAYS been one of my favorite parts in all this. Having been doing this for over a decade. My favorite two things in this are watching somebody be stoked on something I built and getting to ride my own stuff. I kind of get to cheat to get it to exactly to where I like it.

Justin: Okay. So do pros make you feel appreciated?

Marcus: (pause) um, most of the time yeah. I mean guys like James Woods are grateful and will let us know all the time they appreciate what we do and, you know, it’s a boost, it keeps us going.